Hydrogen sulfides have recently received a great deal of interest due to the record high superconducting temperatures of up to 203 K observed on strong compression of dihydrogen sulfide (H2S). A joint theoretical and experimental study is presented in which decomposition products and structures of compressed H2S are characterized, and their superconducting properties are calculated. In addition to the experimentally known H2S and H3S phases, our first-principles structure searches have identified several energetically competitive stoichiometries that have not been reported previously; H2S3, H3S2, and H4S3. In particular, H4S3 is predicted to be thermodynamically stable within a large pressure range of 25-113 GPa. High-pressure room-temperature X-ray diffraction measurements confirm the presence of H3S and H4S3 through decomposition of H2S that emerge at 27 GPa and coexist with residual H2S, at least up to the highest pressure studied in our experiments of 140 GPa. Electron-phonon coupling calculations show that H4S3 has a small T c of below 2 K, and that H2S is mainly responsible for the observed superconductivity of samples prepared at low temperature (<100K).

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Rice yellow stunt virus (RYSV) is a member of the plantinfecting Nucleorhabdovirus genus of the Rhabdoviridae family (35). RYSV has a nonsegmented, negative-sense single-stranded RNA genome which contains a 5Ј trailer, a 3Ј leader, and seven open reading frames (ORFs) in the order

The lattice stability and phonon response of Ti3C2Tx MXene at high pressure are important for understanding its mechanical and thermal properties fully. Here, we use in situ high hydrostatic pressure X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy to study the lattice deformation and phonon behavior of Ti3C2Tx MXene. XRD spectra indicate that no phase transformation occurs up to the pressure of 26.7 GPa. The elastic constant along a lattice parameter was calculated to be 378 GPa. In the Raman spectra obtained at high-pressure, the out-of-plane phonon modes (A1g at ~ 210, ~ 504, and ~ 711 cm−1) exhibit monotonic blueshifts with increasing pressure. The Grüneisen parameters of these three modes were calculated to be 1.08, 1.16, and 0.29, respectively. These results enrich the basic property data of Ti3C2Tx MXene and would benefit the further understanding of this novel material.

Exploiting photocatalysts respond to visible light is of huge challenge for photocatalytic H2 production. Here, we synthesize a new composite material consisting of few-layer MoS2 nanosheets grown on CuInS2 surface as an efficient photocatalyst for solar H2 generation. The photocatalytic results demonstrate that the 3 wt % MoS2 /CuInS2 photocatalyst exhibits the highest H2 generation rate of 316 μmol h(-1)  g(-1) under visible light irradiation, which is almost 28 times higher than that of CuInS2 . Importantly, the MoS2 /CuInS2 photocatalyst shows a much higher photocatalytic activity than that of Pt-loaded CuInS2 photocatalyst. The enhanced photocatalytic activities of MoS2 /CuInS2 photocatalysts can be attributed to the improved charge separation at the interface of MoS2 and CuInS2, which is demonstrated by the significant enhancement of photocurrent responses in MoS2 /CuInS2 photoelectrodes. This work presents a noble-metal-free photocatalyst that responds to visible light for solar H2 generation.

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Lithium titanium oxide (Li4Ti5O12, LTO), a ‘zero-strain’ anode material for lithium-ion batteries, exhibits excellent cycling performance. However, its poor conductivity highly limits its applications. Here, the structural stability and conductivity of LTO were studied using in situ high-pressure measurements and first-principles calculations. LTO underwent a pressure-induced amorphization (PIA) at 26.9 GPa. The impedance spectroscopy revealed that the conductivity of LTO improved significantly after amorphization and that the conductivity of decompressed amorphous LTO increased by an order of magnitude compared with its starting phase. Furthermore, our calculations demonstrated that the different compressibility of the LiO6 and TiO6 octahedra in the structure was crucial for the PIA. The amorphous phase promotes Li+ diffusion and enhances its ionic conductivity by providing defects for ion migration. Our results not only provide an insight into the pressure depended structural properties of a spinel-like material, but also facilitate exploration of the interplay between PIA and conductivity.

The genomic region encompassing the L protein gene and a small open reading frame (ORF 6) of Rice yellow stunt virus (RYSV) has been sequenced, thus completing the nucleotide sequence of the RYSV genome. The genome organization of RYSV is unique in the rhabdoviruses because it contains two additional genes when compared to the basic gene order of the family Rhabdoviridae. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the amino acid sequence of the RYSV L protein is most closely related to that of the L protein of Sonchus yellows net virus, another nucleorhabdovirus. However, the RYSV L protein has a unique acidic N-terminal domain distinct from that of other rhabdoviruses. Moreover, the polypeptide encoded by the ORF 6 was detected by immunoblot analysis in purified RYSV virions. Thus RYSV provides the first example in the family Rhabdoviridae that a small ORF between the G and L genes encodes a virion protein.Rice yellow stunt virus (RYSV), synonymous with Rice transitory yellowing virus, is a species in the genus Nucleorhabdovirus of the Rhabdoviridae (Walker et al., 2000). RYSV has a non-segmented, negative-sense singlestranded RNA genome. We have previously sequenced the RYSV genomic RNA from cDNA clones representing the 39 leader (Wang et al., 1999), the nucleocapsid protein (N) (Fang et al., 1994), the phosphoprotein (P, formerly designated non-structural protein) (Zhu et al., 1997), a protein (P3) of unknown function , the matrix protein (M) and the glycoprotein (G) , as well as the 59 trailer region (Wang et al., 1999). In this paper, we report the sequence of the genomic region between the glycoprotein gene and the 59 trailer, thus completing the sequence of the entire RYSV genome (14 042 nucleotides). In this region, a large open reading frame (ORF) encoding the polymerase (L) and a small ORF (ORF 6) capable of encoding 93 amino acids (aa) were found on the viral complementary (vc) strand. Furthermore, we present evidence that the polypeptide encoded by ORF 6, named P6, is a virion-associated protein. Thus RYSV encodes seven genes and has, among the characterized rhabdoviruses, the unique genome organization 39 leader-N-P-3-M-G-6-L-59 trailer. In comparison to the basic gene order represented by the genome of Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), the RYSV genome has two additional genes: gene 3 and gene 6. Gene 3 is located between the P and M genes where additional ORFs were identified in the genomes of all plant rhabdoviruses examined so far [Sonchus yellows net virus (SYNV) (Scholthof et al., 1994), Lettuce necrotic yellows virus (LNYV) (Wetzel et al., 1994) and Northern cereal mosaic virus (NCMV) (Tanno et al., 2000)] and the insect rhabdovirus Sigma virus (SigmaV) (Teninges et al., 1993). However, in the position between the G and L genes where the RYSV gene 6 is interposed, the presence of the extra gene(s) has only been described for some animal rhabdoviruses [Adelaide River virus (ARV) , Bovine ephemeral fever virus (BEFV) (McWilliam et al., 1997), Rabies virus (RABV) (Tordo et al., 1986), Infectious haemat...